Saginaw firebombing suspects convicted of all charges, face mandatory life without parole

SAGINAW, MI — Two alleged East Side Gang members face life in prison without parole after a jury convicted them for the July firebombing and shooting at a home in Saginaw's Sheridan Park neighborhood.

After deliberating for about 12 hours over parts of two days, a jury of eight women and four men Friday, Dec. 6, convicted John H. Granderson and JeMarcus J. Watkins of 17 and 15 felonies, respectively.

Those felonies included conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“It's fair to say that the seriousness of the crimes goes without saying,” said Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Fehrman, who tried the case. “Anyone capable of committing those crimes is an obvious danger to the community.”

The jurors began deliberating about 10 a.m. Thursday after listening to Wednesday's closing arguments, and Saginaw County Chief Circuit Judge Fred L. Borchard sent them home about 5 p.m. They returned about 9 a.m. Friday and reached their verdict about 2:10 p.m.

They convicted Granderson, 23, and Watkins, 21, in connection with the approximately 2 a.m. July 11 incident at 2806 Capehart, the home of the mother of the intended target in the May 23 unofficial pre-prom party in which alleged East Side Gang members and those with ties to Sheridan Park opened fire on one another and 17-year-old Tonquinisha “NeNe” McKinley died.

While The Saginaw News was unable to immediately reach White for comment, Frey said after the verdict that he believed the jury “got it wrong.”

“Eye-witness identification, time and time again, has proven to be unreliable,” he said. “It was a guilt by association tactic.”

The jurors also had to decide whether Granderson and Watkins are members of the East Side Gang or, at the least, have an affiliation with the gang. Frey consistently objected to Borchard admitting pictures, mostly from Facebook, of Watkins and others displaying gang signs. The attorney said after the verdict he believes "the whole trial is appealable."

'Domino effect?'

When police arrested the two suspects within about 14 hours after the incident, Saginaw Police Detective Sgt. Reggie Williams spoke to the importance of their arrests and the impact they would have on reducing crime in Saginaw. At the time of the incident, the city of Saginaw had seen 19 homicides and was approaching the warm months of the year typically ripe for violence; since the arrests, the city has seen eight homicides.

“We have some major players in the violence in Saginaw County now going to prison for a significant amount of time,” he said.

The county's Major Crimes Unit, a collaboration between the Saginaw Police Department, Michigan State Police, and other agencies, mostly has been responsible for the reduction in violence, Boyd and Fehrman said.

“The (MCU) has been focusing in on the major players, and we're trying to do that as well,” Boyd said. “The coordination that's taking place has been paramount. Hopefully this will continue and have an impact on our level of violence.”

Tonquinisha McKinley

Fehrman said during the trial that the firebombing and pre-prom incident were connected. Prosecutors have charged four men, two alleged East Side Gang members — Evellis “Val” McGee and Karon “Do Man” Thomas — and two men with ties to the Sheridan Park neighborhood — Keon V. Bowens and Isaiah D. Clark — in the pre-prom shooting that resulted in the death of McKinley, the younger sister of Travante J. McKinley, who Fehrman also alleges is an East Side Gang member. McKinley is in prison for an unrelated shooting in 2012.

Some of those inside the house at the time of the incident testified they saw multiple men approach the house and somebody throw something similar to a Molotov cocktail into the living room and then heard numerous gunshots subsequently ring out.

The main witness testified he saw Granderson outside firing an assault rifle while wearing a hoodie with the words “Free Veezy,” a reference to another of McGee's nicknames. The witness said he then saw Watkins approach the front door with a gun in his hand; when Watkins saw who the man was — a friend he'd known for years and would call “cousin” — his eyes “got big” and he walked away.

Boyd said prosecutors believe the incident was an effort to intimidate potential witnesses in the pre-prom shooting case.

“The police did an excellent job in getting witnesses to come forward and did a wonderful job in maintaining their safety," Boyd said. "I'm hopeful now that this will have sort of a domino effect on our community.”

Judge Borchard also ordered media not to photograph civilian witnesses during trial to help protect their identities.

Deliberation issues

The reading of the verdict was delayed for more than an hour because one of the jurors earlier in the day reported concerns she had about somebody possibly following her this week. Rather than have the juror detail her concerns in front of a packed courtroom, Borchard and the attorneys agreed to use the courtroom of Fred Borchard's brother, Saginaw County Circuit Judge James T. Borchard, while those in Fred Borchard's courtroom remained in that courtroom.

In James Borchard's courtroom, with only the court staff, attorneys, defendants, multiple police officers and The Saginaw News present, the juror said that on Wednesday she went to a family-member-owned “small-town” bar and restaurant where “you know who's there.” That evening, the juror said, a Hispanic male walked in, ordered a shot uncommon for that bar and sat down about five feet from her, then came to the bar and said he'd pay for the shot, that he would come right back, and asked the bartender not to touch the shot. The man never came back inside the bar, the juror said.

The next night, the juror went to the same bar, and when she was leaving, she saw a dark blue van parked next to the entrance, she said. The juror saw the person inside drinking out of a bottle but couldn't identify him or her nor identify their race, she said. Right before she pulled out of the parking lot, the van did so, and drove on a road toward her house but did not turn onto the road on which her house was, she said.

The juror said she decided to sleep at her sister-in-law's house Thursday night.

The issue was further complicated by the juror telling Borchard she told some of her fellow jurors about her concerns prior to them reaching their verdict. That led the judge to individually question each of the 11 other jurors, still in James Borchard's courtroom, about whether they heard her concerns and whether it affected their verdict or if they based their verdict on the law and the evidence.

Five of the 11 other jurors said they heard the woman's concerns but said it did not affect their verdict. After Borchard decided there were no issues with the verdict related to the woman voicing her concerns to the other jurors, he read the verdict in his own courtroom.

The verdict against Granderson was met mostly with silence with some family members beginning to cry, while the verdict against Watkins was met with gasps from multiple family members who walked out of the courtroom as the judge continued to read the verdict.

About two hours of the jury's Friday morning deliberations were spent in the courtroom. They requested a transcript of the main witness' testimony and, in a unique decision, James Borchard — making a ruling because his brother was in a meeting in Lansing — decided to have the transcript read to the jury rather than give it to them to read in the jury room.

With Fehrman in District Court for a preliminary hearing related to the pre-prom incident, Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Albosta played Fehrman's part, and Assistant Prosecutor Manvel Trice played the part of the witness, who since the incident has moved out of the state and traveled back after his testimony. A couple of the jurors indicated after hearing about 82 pages of about 200 pages of the transcript that they didn't need to hear anymore, but Frey requested to have the entire transcript read to allow the jury to hear the portion in which he performed his cross-examination of the witness.

James Borchard denied that request and sent the jury back to the deliberation room but gave them a copy of the transcript. Frey said after the verdict if he had known only the prosecution's portion would be read, he would have objected prior.

White pointed out he and the other attorneys had no way of knowing what portion of the testimony the jury specifically was interested in or what effect that testimony had on either of the defendants. White also said James Borchard asked the jurors if any of them wanted to continue listening, and none raised their hands in the affirmative.

In addition to the conspiracy charge, the jurors convicted Granderson and Watkins of six counts of assault with intent to murder, single counts of first-degree arson, conspiring to commit first-degree arson, and retaliating against a witness by threatening to kill or injure, and seven and five firearm offenses, respectively.

Granderson — also known as Arab, pronounced A-Rab — and Watkins, also known as J-Watts, remain jailed without bond and are scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 29.

— Andy Hoag covers courts for MLive/The Saginaw News. Email him at ahoag@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter @awhoag